Today's NASA owes its existence to a legacy in aeronautics that began
just 12 years after the Wright Brothers' historic flight in 1903.

In 1915, during World War I, Congress established the National Advisory
Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) with a mandate to supervise the
scientific study of flight. Most of NACA's work at that time was applied
to military aviation.

Several of the NASA research facilities we know today were established
under NACA-Langley Aeronautical Laboratory in 1917 (now the NASA Langley
Research Center in Hampton, Virginia), Ames Aeronautical Laboratory in
1939 (now the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California),
and Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in 1940 (now the NASA Glenn
Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio).

Under NACA's watch, research was conducted using new technologies that
contributed to the development of every American aircraft of the time,
including:

Wind tunnels to "fly" full-sized aircraft;

Radial air-cooled aircraft engines;

Engine cowl rings to reduce drag and promote cooling;

Wing de-icing systems;

The sweptback wing and the tricycle landing gear; and

Principles and tools to help aircraft fly many times faster than the speed of sound.

In 1958, with World War II over and the "Space Race" just begun, the
NACA's personnel, research procedures, facilities, and expertise became
the foundation for the new National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA).

Since then, the aeronautics programs within NASA have continued to honor
their NACA roots by conducting research and developing technology to
improve commercial and military aircraft, and to support the creation of
a next generation air transportation system.